There is a lesson to be learned in the death of Joy Sterritt, a farm boy, which must not be lost. They story is a tragic one, with many a tug upon the heart strings.
One night in December, joy Sterritt rode out upon his father’s farm to round up some cattle, in preparation for a sale to be held next day. He rode a horse which his mother had expressly forbidden him to ride. The horse shied at something and threw the boy into a creek in the pasture, breaking his spine and paralyzing his body from the hips down. Unable to extricate himself, Joy Sterritt remained in the creek, supported by the ice, all through that cold December night until morning came, when his strength failed and he slipped down to his death.
During the night, with the aid of a flash light, he wrote messages to his mother. As the hours passed, and he realized the end was approaching, these messages became ever more tender and loving. Through them all ran remorse that he had brought this trouble on himself, and this grief upon others by his disobedience. Likewise there ran through them all unconquerable faith in God to whom he had turned in his misery.
“God bless you, mother, I would be better off if I had always listened to your advice,” he wrote in the early hours of the night, “Don’t worry about me, for I am sure that God is with me tonight. Oh, mother, I am so glad I was brought up in a Christian home,” he wrote later on.
As the hours wearily wore away, he described his position and his suffering. Always he asked those who loved him not to grieve. Always faith in God ran through the painfully scrawled lines.
A short time before morning, when the inevitable was almost upon him, he roused himself to write, maybe someone will see my flashlight and come. I am going to keep up as long as I have strength. I do want to see you all so much. There is a verse keeps running through my head, and it is so beautiful, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ And then, at the last, “Well, mother, dear, it will soon be over. I’m, in a hurry to go now. My suffering will soon be over now.”
Oh, disobedience, how much suffering comes from thee! O, faith, how much comfort and blessing comes from thee! Disobedience sent Joy Sterritt to die in his father’s pasture. But faith bore him up, in the zero hour of the early morning and took him to his Father’s home. Praise the Lord.